TV Tops List of Cultural 'Bad Guys' ; Movies Have Been Singled out for Criticism in Recent Weeks, but Americans Say Television and Video Games Pose Bigger Threats to the Values of Children

Article excerpt

When it comes to their children, Americans consider TV - not
Hollywood's feature films - the real bad guy in the nation's culture
wars.

These findings from a new nationwide poll may be reason for pause
up on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have sharply criticized
Hollywood movie executives - and threatened new regulations - after
discovering that movie companies marketed R-rated films to
children.

Across the country, many more Americans rank TV, along with
violent video games and raunchy music, as greater threats than
movies to the health and morals of the nation's youth.

Nearly 4 of every 10 Americans say television has the most
negative impact on children of any major entertainment media,
according to The Christian Science Monitor/TIPP poll conducted Oct.
6-8.

Over 20 percent say video games have the worst influence, while
13 percent say music is the greatest menace to children.

Movies are mentioned by slightly fewer than 10 percent.

Kelvin VanArsdale, the father of two in Louisiana, says "a lot of
problems in society come from what is on TV."

But Mr. Van-Arsdale, one of those surveyed in the Monitor/TIPP
poll, says his greatest concerns are with rap music, which he
complains is vulgar, degrading, and disrespectful of women.

The entertainment industry - particularly movies - became
headline news in Congress and in the presidential race in recent
weeks after the Federal Trade Commission reported that Hollywood
was marketing movies that featured violence, sex, and profanity to
children under the age of 17.

One studio was found to be testing R-rated movies on focus groups
with children as young as 10.

Republican vice-presidential candidate Dick Cheney raised the
issue anew last week in the VP debate, when he chastised the
Democratic ticket for criticizing the movie industry, then taking
millions in campaign money the same week from Hollywood moguls.

Who's responsible?

The poll found a high level of public skepticism about using
Washington to reform the entertainment industry, according to
Raghavan Mayur, president of TIPP, a unit of TechnoMetrica Market
Intelligence, who conducted the media poll for the Monitor.

"Americans know that politicians stump against Hollywood violence
during the day and take money from them to run their races at
night," he says. "Their confidence in the candidates to deal
effectively with Hollywood is pretty low."

The Monitor/TIPP poll of 800 Americans - all likely voters -
found that 49 percent favored slapping a federal ban on the
marketing of R-rated movies to children. But 45 percent opposed
such a ban.

One reason for this sharp division of opinion may be that most
Americans say parents - not the government - bear the greatest
responsibility for regulating children's entertainment.

For example, 95 percent in this survey said that parents should
be "very responsible" for monitoring the movies their children
attend.

In addition, 58 percent agreed that Hollywood should also be
"very responsible" for helping to protect children from
unacceptable movies.

Yet only 23 percent felt that government should have a
significant role in deciding the movies that children see.

Kelly Meade, a mother with three children in Indianapolis, Ind.,
was one of those surveyed by the Monitor/TIPP poll. …